


Isolation

by koashi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Blood and Violence, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Eventually it will switch to Keith, Galaxy Garrison, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hurt/Comfort, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Kerberos Mission, M/M, Movie: Aliens (1986), Orphan Keith (Voltron), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Rescue Missions, Science Fiction, Space Stations, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Though it's based off Alien:Isolation more than the movie, Torture, only by a year
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-17 00:11:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15448965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koashi/pseuds/koashi
Summary: Shiro is gone. He’s safe. Keith and Matt manage to get him in that ship and away from here."Hell on Earth", Keith would have said but they're in space. They take a sharp turn, trying to get out of sight. He’s running out of breath, but he doesn’t stop. Quickly a few more steps and the two of them dash into a room, sealing the door behind them.Thudding foot steps barrel right past the door. A growl from the beast, and Keith thinks they’re safe as the sounds fade away further down the hall. Matt is leaning against the wall, arm prop up on a desk. He’s trying to catch his breath, hair sticking to his neck and forehead due to his sweat. Keith is sure he’s in a similar state, trying to catch gasps of air into his lungs.“You were suppose to go with him Matt.”“And leave you here by yourself? Pass. You’d get yourself killed.”(I”m honestly surprised I haven’t seen any Aliens: Isolation!Au for Voltron so I wrote one myself.)





	1. Ascension

_Miraculously,_ _Takashi Shirogane, the pilot of the Kerberos mission has made it back safely, shocking most of the nation after news of the flight aircraft losing transmission for over a year now. There has been no reports on if any other crew members such as Samuel Holt, his son, Matthew Holt, and lastly Keith Kogane have made it back safely. These three members being the pinnacle of the Garrison’s top captain, engineers, and pilots to have set out to-_  

The television shuts off, a groan escaping the Cuban’s lips as he stretches. There was a satisfying crack until he felt something pull uncomfortably. Lance lets himself fall back against the couch. He was in his apartment, the rest of the room quiet as he glanced around to look at the clock perched on the wall right before the entrance to his kitchen. It was half-passed seven, he must have fallen asleep after getting home from the Garrison. There was a frantic almost panic over the institution when Shrio had emerged from the crash landing that had happen a week ago. Everything is dragged to a halt for the time being as they try to reevaluate _how_ Shrio was still alive.

“Definitely weird,” he mumbles to himself. How did this man survive in an escape pod for _two years_ without being able to contact HQ for any help? Lance had tried to do the math. The amount of time he most likely drifting in space before any power could have started up the pod, calculating how much of the gas in those pods to be used towards flying the thing and life support, the food he would have to ration that could only help him survive three months at best. He dragged his hand over his face. There wasn’t anyway he could possibly done it, but he did. Lance could only wonder the guilt that must be lying over the Senior Officer’s head about leaving his friends and crew to whatever had happened to his ship. And all of this coming down to one thing: “pilot error.” Whether it was his or Keith’s mistake, it was big enough to allow what might have been impossible to happen.

Of course, Keith was chosen to be added to the Kerberos last-minute due to his overall pilot records on stimulation and outside of it. Lance remembers when the professors had made the announcement. Keith, as much as he hated to admit, had natural skill to being pilot. Someone who thinks on their feet, knows what to do and what steps he can skip, but still get the job _done_. He was able to solve any errors in flight patterns in the matter of seconds, exactly what they needed in such an important mission. Even if most of the professors despised his bad attitude and aloof nature. Being Keith, they knew that he was a diamond in the rough. The Kerberos mission was on file, an experiment to be test how humans can live in space. Different from what NASA and other space programs. Kerberos was to actively have people exploring the universes far beyond their own for the future of humanity. The first generation of space explores. They were chosen to be the first group to stay in space for the rest of their lives and whatever they would find would set a path for future generations. As much as Lance would have loved to be a member of that crew he wouldn't be able to do it. He loves his family too much, too attached to everything on Earth, the good and the bad. It would be hard to just give it all up.

The room has faded to it’s dark hue without the sunset that usually makes it’s way through the living room’s blinds. Finally, he pushes himself up and walks over to the light switch. Slapping his hand on the button, the lights flicker for a moment before turning on completely. The couch which he just got up from is nuzzled again the wall while across from it was the TV. A coffee table right in between the two, coffee stains now visible. Lance frowns, he needs to make sure Pidge gets off that stuff, next thing he knows they’ll have a coffee machine in their kitchen. Lance isn’t a big fan of coffee, it wasn’t so much the taste of coffee that put him off more of the ability to just push him over the edge on energy and hating the caffeine crashes after. His mind drifts of to Pidge’s addiction and sniffles a groan. The little gremlin has been sneaking their stuff in their apartment. Lance thinks that Hunk hasn’t noticed just yet, probably noting the extra clothes in the laundry, but not thinking much about it. Lance should honestly just offer the other to room with them if they’re here so often.

He heads over to the kitchen, his bare feet feeling cold again the tile. Thoughts drifting to where did he place his slippers again. He rummages through the oven, and through the clutter of different pots and pans he finds his teapot. Hunk called it weird and a bit annoying that every time he had to bake he has to take them all out, because Lance refused to put the pans anywhere else. _They just fit in there. Don’t you do that? Like at your house? Or is it just mine?_ He had said when Hunk asked him why. There was never a real explanation, it was something that was always just done at home and Lance never found a reason to question it. 

Pouring the water into the metal tin he starts the stove, the metal clanks against the burner after he finishes placing it down. Leaning again the counter, he crosses his arms and waits. Hunk should be home by now, Pidge too. Again, checking the time there was roughly about 10 minutes before eight. There’s a jingle of keys and the turning of the lock right outside the door. The walls thin enough to ear anything that happens to make a sound (if it’s by them or their neighbors.)

“Hey, sorry I’m late, we had a family come to the bakery and they had like five kids, it was _horrible._ They made a mess with all the flour,, because they somehow got behind the counter..and twenty seconds later…bam! Powered hell. Shouldn’t parents tell their kids to be mindful and like not waste baking ingredients?” Hunk states as soon as he comes in, dropping his bag by the table.

Noting Lance standing in the kitchen Hunk continues, “You making tea? If you are can we try the new ones we bought the other day? The dessert teas?” 

“You sound like you had a great time at work then, and yeah sure, I was planning on using them, can’t resist the taste of…” Lance trails off as he looks for the box, picking a random flavor from the list, “black forest. What does that even mean? It’s gonna taste like shit I know it.” 

“What if it taste good though? And it just leads to your ultimate addiction to tea just like Pidge and her coffee?” Hunk grins, pulling his apron out from his bag, the thing was completely covered with a white dust.

“I’ll be the judge of that after I drink the dang thing. Did Pidge text you that they’re heading over today? Cause if they are then we need more tea and dinner.” He hears the water start to boil, the steam slowly rising out of the nose of the teapot.

“I was thinking of just making mac n’ cheese, one of the few foods that Pidge actually likes from Kraft.”

“Anything for the little monster-“ he starts.

“Monster? I think I like it when you call me gremlin more.” Lance jumps and Hunk lets out a squeak, both males turning to the door, Pidge standing there hand on the nob of the door. They’re grinning as Lance notices they’re wearing the backpack. The thing is huge compared to the small teens body, making it look like a giant turtle shell on them. Bulky enough that he’s sure that if Pidge tripped they’re going to suffocate under the bag, because of how heavy it is.

“But besides that, you guys really need to start locking your doors, this is what? The fifth time I’ve done this? I know you guys just moved in recently, but we can’t just have strangers walking in, I’ll loose my good WIFI connection if you guys are murdered.” Lance rolls his eyes and turns back to the stove lowering the heat. The brunet could hear the grin on the shortest member of their group face. The door slams shut and there is a resound click of the door locking.

“Don’t you mean WE-FEE?” Lance mocks, “You just know that Hunk always gets home at this time, and you practically live here, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.”

Pidge huffs and makes their way to the couch, dropping their bag before rummaging through it. Pulling out their laptop, they cross their legs as they sit comfortably on the couch.

“How have you been dealing with the whole, ‘Shiro’s not dead’ thing by the way? It’s really confusing how they supposedly stated that they lost contact with his ship and they were on route towards one of our own space stations out there.” His hand moves over the handle of the tea pot, pulling it over to one of the burners that aren't on. Turning it off, he turns to look for some cups that he could use.

“You think the Garrison is just gonna say everything that’s going on? Lance please, I know you aren’t stupid.” There’s a faint sound of the computer starting up, “So, I started to do some digging, researching if you will—”

“Hacking!” Hunk all but adds before he’s leaving the room to change from the powdered disaster. 

“It’s not hacking if the Feds aren’t around!” Pidge exclaims back,

Lance finishes pouring the water into the tea cups, dipping a teabag into each one. He makes his way over with tea in each hand, slipping one to Pidge they mumble a thank you before dipping the tea bag in and out the cup. After a moment they take a sip, making a face at the taste before continuing,

“Okay so again, researching, when I came upon this in their files. It’s a video, this one never made it’s way past HQ I’m pretty sure they’re trying to cover something up. It’s something I’ve been trying to get to, but seems like the Garrison hired some new IT to build a decent firewall.”  
  
Lance furrows his eyebrows, leaning down to sit right next to Pidge. “Cover something up? What though? What could be that bad that they had to cover it up, I know the Garrison is shady as fuck, but—“

“Aliens. They’re covering up about aliens, do you think everyone would be okay with the fact that there are aliens?” Pidge hisses.

“Pidge I know it’s a touchy subject, since you know,” he drifts off not wanting to finish the sentence. He takes a sip of his tea, avoiding eye contact. Lance stops and tries not to spit the tea back into the cup. It tastes absolutely disgusting, Black Forest was to be avoided the next time he makes tea. Pidge just shakes their head, mood sour.

“Whatever Lance.” They don’t say anything else choosing to start the video they had pulled up in the mean time. 

 _“This is flight log —— 12-17, three days estimate from the mothership. HQ we have received strange signals from—— The transmission have been sporadic and there seems to be a disturbance from their messages. They keep repeating to avoid them and turn around, we will be waiting for a response to ——. I will turn you over to Officer Kogane for more details.”_ Shiro’s voice was strange to hear, there was a static that cover the over all transmission that made Lance lean forward to hear better. His eyes catching how good Shiro looked compared to leaked images of his condition. He looks healthy and alert, his hair unmistakably all black compared to the white patch that he had now from the videos that were somehow leaked of his condition. Shiro fumbled with some buttons before the camera switched over to Keith. A frown and a twitch of annoyance sparked from seeing the man, Lance held back a comment. Too many memories of him and Keith from the Garrison filtering through his brain. For all he knew Keith could be long gone and he rather not look childish with starting a fight with a possible dead man. 

“ _This is Officer Kogane, with Officer Holt…_ ” there was a mike that hovered near his lips, the rest of the structure looping behind his ear, the annoying mullet that Lance was so used to seeing was gone, cut short. That had definitely caught his attention, the Keith he knew would never just cut his hair. Lance bit the inside of his cheek. That’s not something he needs to worry about right now. Catching some movement behind Keith’s chair Matt Holt stood there, smiling and waving towards the camera, the Cuban could feel Pidge tense up beside him. “ _We were able to use our prototype long-range telescope to look at ——“_ An image pops up in the lower right hand corner,. An image that everyone in the Garrison is familiar with. The ultimate success of what they can do. The Mayfield. The first ship that had ever made its way into space for long-range missions. The ship that was said to withstand anything seemed to be in pieces. The Mayfield has parts of the ship ripped and torn apart, debris were everywhere. Lance shudders at the thought that something in the picture could be a dead body. The audio cuts off for a good few seconds, the image again fading in and out as Lance struggled to even try to piece together what Keith might be saying.

“ _We have concluded that this was an outside force, most pods from the escape bay seem to still be intact so there still might be crew members on the ship that need to be rescued. If needed the Kerberos will be able to handle the extra personal.”_ Keith looks down rummaging through some paper _, “with our current fuel and supplies we should be fine to handle roughly around 200 extra bodies on the ship, best if we can rummage through what might be left on the Mothership can assure an easy return. However, I think that is ill-advised. Whatever hit that ship is big and nasty, best to avoid and just do a turn around to get back up from the battleships located around Earth.”_ Keith crossed his arms and stared at the camera, almost challenging whichever Senior Officer was watching to tell him no. The battleships were just from US military, they weren’t truly designed for deep space travel like the Kerberos was. 

By this time Hunk has changed into a new set of clothes. A white t-shirt and some sweatpants. He wiggles his toes as he sits down to Pidge’s left. “Woah, is that Keith? He looks different with his hair cut like that. But why are we watching flight logs anyway?” He got his tea that Lance left on the counter, he takes a sip and hums. “With a little bit of milk this could taste great! Lance what do you think?” Lance sticks out his tongue and groans, shoving his own cup towards Hunk.

“Take mine, it’s gross, I don’t know how you like it.” Hunk sets the other cup down on the coffee table, slipping again from his own cup and leaning towards the laptop that Pidge had propped up on their knees so Lance and Hunk could see it better.

From the video, you can see Matt shake his head, leaning forward so he can press whatever he needs to replace the previous image. There was a frequency graph that dates from what seemed to be the beginning of their journey from Earth till their current location in who knows where in space. There was simple straight line before spiking and dropping repeatedly. 

 _“These are what our radios have picked up, there seems to be some sort of jammer —— with both sending and receiving messages. We’ve been trying to locate the jammer and it’s coming from the area of the mothership as well. Our’s weren't designed to have any sort of jammer, so whatever is out there is alien. Most likely hostile.”_ Matt is frowning as he switches images to blueprints of the ship, certain areas circled with a red marker. That was definitely not mentioned to anyone before. Weapons. Lance didn’t even know that the Garrison designed weapons. _“Kerberos is equipped with self-defense weapons and can easily be redesigned for stronger output if we are made to engage contact. Though we would like to avoid that if possible——risk running out of ——much faster than we would like. We will be waiting for further instructions, we will be remaining in the same area to avoid any possible detection. Kerberos signing off.”_

The video ends and the screen goes black. _Connection Ended_. Lance was left staring at his own reflection, a cool sweat running down his back.

Aliens? Something has happen millions of light years away from planet Earth that risked and most likely cost them their lives. Shiro had met aliens and survived.Survived through possibly losing his life. However, Matt, Keith, and Sam don’t seem to have the same luck he had. Whatever happened in the last year was written off as something else. Lance looks at Pidge who just has their eyes set forward on the blank screen, their hands gripping the cup are white. 

“The Galaxy Garrison is…using the the Kerberos to cover what ever happened to the The Mayfield? That’s…” Hunk states, fiddling with the cup in his hands.

“Do you think they intentionally sent them….” to die? Lance can’t bare to finish the sentence.

Pidge carefully takes in a breath and nods. “There was another video that came up after that one it was shorter than this one, but…” Their shoulders shake and they use one of their hands to click around on the laptop, clicking on another file. With a quick double-click the video starts up.

Instead of a well-lit room like the last video, there is a flashing red light. A loud blare from an alarm sounds off. Keith is frantic as he types away at the keyboard. He’s in the tight air suits that were meant to be used when traveling outside the ship. Bright orange shoulder pads, surrounded by grey and white and the unmistakable curled ‘GG’ for the Galaxy Garrison right over his heart. His hair is in disarray, there looks to be blood coming down from a cut on his forehead. A second later Keith wipes it away not giving it a second look.

“ _It’s working, thank God!_ ” Keith exclaims, there’s a wild look in his eye as he freezes up and he glances over his shoulder for a moment, moving off screen.

The alarms stop and there’s a faint sound of a door sealing shut. Keith appears again, his fear has been replaced by a scowl.

 _“To whoever the fuck sent us here. Fuck you. You knew exactly what was here. There’s no way you guys didn’t get a message from HQ out here—“_ The video freezes and the image disappears.

 _“Fuck just lost—whatever it doesn’t matter. You just need to hear me loud and clear. If you send another one of our ships you’re——“_ this time the audio disappears, Lance thinks for a moment that was all there was left, and incomplete dying message sent to the Garrison from Keith. Another warning that will be ignored? Lance doesn’t know. Seconds tick by and Lance’s eyes gaze down to the video length it shows another 30 seconds of supposedly video and audio.

Keith’s voice cuts in with 15 seconds left, startling Lance.

 _“You’re all dead to us.”_ Keith voice growls, this time the screen flares a white message. _Connection lost._

Lance’s mind swirls with questions. Each one bouncing off one and into another, a cold sweat making it’s away to the base of his neck. There were just too much questions and not enough answers.

Keith was alone. Where was Shiro? Where were the Holt’s? The most prominent questions sticking out like a sore thumb. Lance is left speechless. Hunk has his mouth covered, most likely nauseous. 

“How the fuck can they keep this from everyone? Who knows about this? None of us do, and we go to school and work for these guys!” Lance screams. His hands moving just as frantically as he felt. The Holt’s, the Shirogane’s, and Kogane’s families left in the dark to suffer with nothing more than “pilot error.” There’s a pounding against the wall, his neighbors signaling they’re being loud.  
  
Lance could care less what they wanted. What Pidge has found, dug up from the clutches of the Garrison was something horrible and couldn’t be ignored.

Pidge looks at him wide-eyed, opening his mouth shudders out, “What can we do? We can’t just take a rocket into space without anyone noticing! The location of the Mayfield isn’t exactly left out for the public to know and even if we did get there what would we do? You saw what happened to…” Pidge covers their face with their hands, moving them under their glasses pushing them up into their hair. 

“We talk to Shiro…we don’t know if they’re alive or dead, for all we know Keith could have mentioned them into the corrupted video.” Hunk suggests. Lance is surprised, he didn’t expect Hunk of all people to even think of going out to danger.

Hunk is looking at the both of them, shifting between Pidge who still hasn’t move their hands to Lance who’s now standing. 

“So…we just sneak in to see him? Like I know we want to do this, but we’re gonna get in trouble. ” Lance runs his fingers through his hair, tugging at it. 

“We can hide out at my place, I have a different address on file so if they do suspect us we won’t be where they think we will be.” Pidge shrugs, moving their laptop down into their bag. The rim of their eyes were red, both Hunk and Lance don’t point it out.

 “Hunk you’ll be the get away driver,” Lance states, snapping his fingers and doing a finger gun in his direction

 Hunk makes a sound and all but whispers to himself, “Why me?”

“Now how are we gonna sneak in…” Lance rubs his hand on his chin, frowning.

“Posing as med-tech?” Pidge blinks as they move to adjust their glasses back over their eyes.

 “That works. We just need to steal some of the uniforms, don’t they leave most of their stuff in that little storage room near the simulators?”

 From the corner of the Cuban’s eye Hunk moves and grabs all the cups, waddling his way to the kitchen to place them in the sink. He faintly hears the water start to run.

 “Yeah they do. So? Tomorrow we’re gonna do this? Rip this all off like a band-aid?” Hunk states.

Lance opens his mouth to answer, but is left unable to. For a moment he keeps gaping like a fish until he just flops back onto the couch.

“It’s just…I dunno. Thinking about it, what if any of them were me? And I was struggling to stay alive against these things…these aliens? As much as I won’t want whatever is happening to me to happen to someone else—wouldn’t a small piece of you want to be rescued?” 

Lance stares up at the ceiling. “I’m sure that’s how Shiro must be feeling. He made it out and at the cost of other people? You’re gonna try to save them, right? I dunno, just feels like the right thing to do?” There’s doubt in the pit of his stomach. What if it is better to just do nothing? Just to hold out away from everything and let it be?

“I want to save my brother and Dad.” The small brunet mumbles before repeating louder, “I want to save my family and I need help.” 

Lance breaks out into a grin, his head dipping forward. He hears Hunk come back in, eyeing the other man he can tell he’s nervous. But as much as he is, Hunk wouldn’t leave his friends alone.

“Yeah buddy, what are friends for.” Lance remarks.

 

* * *

 

“You know what I change my mind, this is not what friends are for.”

“Lance you’re suppose to be whispering.”

“I am!”

“If people can hear you it’s not whispering!”

Lance rolls his eyes. A second later there’s an elbow in-between his ribs.

“Why would you do that?” Lance wheezes out.

“Because you’re making it hard for us to look like we actually know what we’re doing.” Pidge snaps, leaning to glance over the edge of the wall.

“We’ve been looking for him for the past twenty minutes, I don’t think he’s here, they might have moved him somewhere else! Wait, how does looking over the corner to make sure people aren’t around look like we’re suppose to be here?” The taller of the two hisses out.

Lance lets out a sigh, getting this far without getting caught was pretty good in his books, but

Lance needs answers. He hates that he feels that he has to do something. It’s not his fault that the Garrison was like this or that people were knowingly sacrificed. The Cuban just wants to make things right, he wants to come back and tell people that the Garrison is corrupt that there’s something wrong with them and have proof to show them. They weren’t just playing with the lives of the people here, but their families as well. The Cuban would never want these things to happen to his. Lies tied with a ribbon. 

Pidge nudges Lance in the side, getting his attention. The mask that covers Pidges mouth is moved out-of-the-way as they continue to creep down the hallway. It was empty, and they haven’t seen anyone there beside the desk attendant. 

“There must be a door with guards…that just might be where they’re keeping Shiro. They wouldn’t just keep someone with the information Shiro has alone…right?”

“Question is where are all the doctors…even if this has been sealed off just for Shiro there would be other people treating the sick and injured? We’ve pasted so many of them with people resting.” Lance offers, his hand squirming to find something to fidget with.

Pidge shrugs, “Don’t know, don’t care.”

Lance gives the other a pointed look, “Honestly Pidge, your ‘do or die’ moto is gonna get you hurt one day without us here with you.”

Pidge grins an all too knowing look of “but you still love me anyway.”  
  
They pass another hallway, Lance found himself groaning, they were all starting to look the same. Sooner or later they were going to find themselves lost, and Lance could only hope that with their luck if anything does go wrong they’ll be able to get out of there real quick.

Pidge stops suddenly and Lance rams himself into them nearly causing them to both topple to the ground, yet the shortie is sturdier than they look and grunt and push the Cuban right back into place.

“Watch it.”

Lance just gives them a small smile as an apology.

“Typical,” a quick twitch of lips and Pidge already has turned to eyeing a door a few feet away.

“I think he’s in there.”

“How do you know?”

“Intuition and a calculated guess.”

“So more of a guess than.”

“Excuse you—“ Pidge is cut off with the hiss of the door opening, two figures cladded in white Bio-suits exit the room. They both have a clipboard in hand and are murmuring to one another. In the spilt second they both move out of the way, Lance is able to spot another figure on a bed.

Shiro’s face is plastered all over the News for the past few days. The same information being rinsed and repeated through various outlets. How could he not recognize the man.

He’s able to spot a tuff of white hair, it almost fading into the white walls of hospital room. His head is rolled over to his side. White sheets wrapped all the way to mid-chest arms carefully hidden underneath them. Something that stands out to Lance is the pale scar that runs across the bridge of the man’s nose. Horizontal to his eyes. That’s definitely not something the lanky teen noticed in the grain-y leaked photos. There’s also a mask latched onto his face. Lance isn’t sure for what though. The door hisses close, Lance losing sight of his hero.

Pidge nudges Lance forward, signaling him to act natural and walk forward. The other does the same easing into a pace right behind him. Lance feels the need to hold his breath as he passes by the med-techs. A thought crawling around his head that, they know that they actually who they appear to be.

They don’t even give the two of them a lick of attention. The two doctors intently mumbling to one another as they make their way through the hall. Lance is only able to catch a tail-end their conversation from them.

“The readings are off the chart, it’s nothing we’ve ever seen! We risk damaging it with the removal planed tomorrow—“ one of them starts.

The voice that filters through the other med-tech’s face mask is female, “Then we’ll have to be extra careful, we’ve had days to map out the removal it can’t be as easy as just chopping it off. We’ll deal with complications when we get to them.”

The conversation fades as they cut left and disappear from sight. The lump that appeared is eased into nothing, as Pidge now picks up their pace and jogs to the door. Head shifting left to right to make sure there are no guards.

“I don’t know how much time we have, lets get moving. We have to take the emergency exit doors that are down of of these halls. Hunk’s waiting for us.” Pidge’s voice runs on auto-pilot. They’ve slipped out a small tablet like device. Wires latching onto the monitor that is besides the door. Effectively locking them out, but not for long.

Lance keeps watch eyeing down the three separate halls. The sound of voices echo to his left, someone is coming.

“Pidge hurry up we need to get out of sight,” Lance hisses out, his leg shaking.

“Just…give me…a few more seconds.”

A shadow emerges down the hall, they’re close. Lance’s anxiety bubbling to the surface as it makes Pidge on edge too. A quick glance and he see’s Pidge’s hands shaking. 

“Got it!” The door opens, and Pidge hauls him inside as soon as it does. With another series of beeps that sound through the tablet Pidge has the door is now close.

Now out of sight the two of them relax, taking in a deep breath in hope of removing the bubbling feelings.

Lance takes in the time to eye the various medical equipment that is around the room. The medical bed is prop up at an angle. An IV drop is latched onto Shiro’s left arm, from afar it looked like both arms were underneath the blanket, Lance guess he was wrong.

A utility cart is drawn close to the base of the bed, there are various bottles filled with either pills or bottles of liquid. One of them giving off a faint purple glow. It’s something Lance has never seen before. He steps closer, eyes now shifting to the vital signs monitor. Basic Garrison teachings from his medical class allowing him to draw up that Shiro medically speaking from just his vitals is fine. His heart just at a lower rate then normal, Lance chalks it up to he’s asleep so his heart beat is obviously going to be lower. His pressure and oxygen saturation we’re normal as well. Lance turns his attention to the clipboard that is attach to the end of the bed. Picking it up, the paper is littered with information. From when he first arrived, to just recently, probably what the doctors were doing in here before. Something catches his attention, the hasty, repeated circle of the next day and a time, the surgery.

They were preparing him for one, but why? It didn’t look like there was anything wrong with him just by the glance. Pidge rips their way forward, having Lance lose his train of thought.

With no regard they pull off the mask of Shiro’s face, “They have him in an induced coma..why?” They eye the liquid bad before they walks over and pulls the IV out gently as well.

“I don’t know…all of this screams wrong. You overheard the doctors right? They were preparing for surgery.” Lance jerks his thumb behind him, tilting his head to the side in thought again.

“We can worry about that later, as long as they’re using regular anesthesia there shouldn’t be a problem, he’ll wake up from it later.”

“And if they aren’t?”

“Let’s just hope they are.”

Pidge pull’s the blanket from Shiro’s form. He’s dressed in a plain medical suit. It’s an off-shell white which just looks strange on the large form of Shiro. The smaller teen pulls the blanket even more, but stops short once their eyes land on the other’s arm.

Lance’s breath catches in his throat. Where a normal tan arm should have been is replace by a cool grey metal. Accents form their way between the metal all the way up to his upper forearm, where it meets the scaring pink of where his arm now ends. A robotic arm. The conversation from the doctors making sense now, but now leaving Lance with more questions.

“Do you think…this is from the aliens?” Lance moves forward and lays a hand gently on the arm, he pulls back surprised when he feels energy swirling at his finger tips.

“We can worry about this later, let’s get going.”

“OK, OK,” he heaves Shiro up from the bed, the other’s figure rolling to lean against him. It takes all of Lance’s strength from letting him slip past his grip. Meanwhile, Pidge has opened the door, their head swerving left and right to check if the coast is clear. With a nod, Pidge walks back and takes to Shiro’s other side.

It doesn’t do much, but it does relieve some of the uneven weight that he has to balance.

“Do you remember where we gotta go for the exit doors?” Lance murmurs, ears open to listen careful to his surroundings.

“I think so…we take a right down here, another one and then a left. Exit doors should be there.”

Lance just nods, picking up his pace as he follows Pidge’s directions. Even at the rate their going the Cuban prays that they don’t pass by anyone.

The fumble through the halls, swaying side to side in a desperate attempt to share the weight of Shiro between the two of them.

Minutes pass and the duo’s luck seems to continue, no alarms have been set off and they haven’t run into anyone. With another turn down the hallway, the gleaming light of the Exit door is in front of Lance.

With the last of his strength he heaves Shiro’s sleeping form up higher. Picking up his pace again. It strains Lance’s muscles who are screaming in protest as he’s not used to picking up anything above 50 pounds up.

Pidge seems to get the idea that this is the home stretch, leaving Lance to his own as they push the emergency doors open.

That’s when everything went wrong. An alarm blaring in Lance’s ears as soon as the door was touched,

“ _Puta_!” Lance curses in Spanish, Pidge mirrors and fumbles over a few curses themselves.

“I forgot that emergency doors have alarms—fuck,”

“Where’s Hunk?” Lance yells over the alarms, Pidge bites their lip and eyes past the rolling hills. There’s a sputter that Lance recognizes as it breaks through the sounding alarms.

A speeding metal beast breaks through the bush as Hunk rolls up in Lance’s jeep. The wheel screeching to a stop. It’s an old model, but even as the motor sputters it easily throws itself over the uneven plains. A dark blue color almost merging with the darkness of the night. Hunk’s eyes are wide and scared, he has a death grip on the steering wheel.

“What—we weren’t suppose to trip any alarms! Pidge!” Hunk accuses.

“Sorry!” Pidge’s voice cuts through as they rip the back door open throwing themselves in.

“Come on big guy, help me get Shiro in the back and I’ll take the wheel,” Hunk’s eyes lock with Lance’s and there’s a sense of relief. He scrambles out of the jeep.

Hunk rushes and grabs Shiro pulling the majority of the weight from Lance as they push his form towards Pidge and into the car.

“Why am I holding this guy?” Pidge exclaims, but no one answers. Hunk is already in the passenger seat, locking the seat belt in place and Lance has thrown his safety out of the window.

They need to get going, “Don’t fail me now, _Linda.”_

Lance throws the jeep into reverse. There’s sounds of yelling beyond the open emergency door. The alarms that were sounding before are cut off, replaced with a different one and a message.

_“We have a code delta-G all personnel on alert.”_

The previously dim lit lights are brightened. Someone flipping the switch. The silence is overtaken by alarms, shouts, and the thudding of feet against the gravel. It startles Lance, but he recovers. They’re going to catch up if he doesn’t get going. Shifting gears, he swerves the Jeep and takes off into the desert. The engine of the jeep hums as he pushes it further. _Linda_ jerks forward as it picks up speed, he’ll have to be careful, if he isn’t he’ll surely send everyone flying.

Checking his rearview mirror, he sees the outline of Garrison issued vehicles. Their headlights bright as they tumble over the desert sand, struggling to catch up. Lance knowns them too well, the engine is small and compact, it won’t help them here. They need speed. He might not be great in the flying simulations like Keith or Shiro, but behind the wheel of his jeep, he’s sure no one will be able to catch him. In front of him he sees the outline of a state road, much better then the uncertainty of the desert. A hill throws the jeep into the air, Hunk screams right in his ear and Pidge does as well, grabbing the back of the medical suit.

The car jumps and lands onto the concrete road, Lance doesn’t wait as he cuts a sharp left. He feels the car tilt to the side, Lance holds his breath. Linda comes through and the car stutter as it lands and is pushed further. From the corner of his eyes Hunk is gripping onto the leather chair with all his might, eyes screwed shut and from the rearview mirror Pidge does the same, with a tight grip to Shiro’s body. The fighter pilot dead to the world and safe from the terrors of Lance’s driving.

A few of the Garrison vehicles don’t land the jump or cut the curve just good as Lance, sending them spiraling, some overturning themselves. The tank of his car, doesn’t fail him, the meter stick climbing higher and higher as the headlights behind him slowly become a ghost. It doesn’t make Lance ease up on the gas either way. Going well past 100 mph as he flies down the road.

The scenes around him slowly become familiar as they slowly edge their way to the city, only then does he slow down to the speed limit, not wanting to catch the attention of possible police officers in the area.

By then it seems that both Pidge’s and Hunk’s souls have return to their body. Pidge gives Lance an surprise look, eyebrows raised and mouth agape,

“I never knew you could drive like that, I’m honestly surprised. I never took you for a hotrod!”A laugh bubbles from Pidge’s lips and Lance isn’t sure if its from shock, that he actually out-sped the Garrison, or if she lived with Lance’s reckless driving.

Hunk looks like he’s going to throw up, and Lance’s smile withers. “Please, Hunk not again—“ Lance starts before Hunk holds up a hand to the other and another is placed over his lips.

Seconds pass and Hunk eases into the seat, face no longer green.

_Thank Jesus._

_“_ You live around the Eastern District right?” Lance chooses to switch his attention to Pidge again.

“Yeah, just keep going this way until you hit the road with that smoothie place you like, then you’ll make a right.” Lance gives them a thumbs up, just as he did a groan escapes Shiro’s lips. A tell sign that maybe the drugs will ware off soon.

Lance eyes Shiro prone form one more time as they reach a red light, eyes stop at the arm.

Someone behind him honks for him to move, telling him to go.

He doesn’t turn back for the rest of the drive.

 

* * *

 

To bring Shiro into the small apartment that Pidge calls home is a lot easier with Hunk for sure. They’ve covered the blue jeep with a car sheet, hoping that will be enough for the Garrison not to find them.

“Where do you have the money to have an apartment to yourself?” Hunk asks, they’ve laid Shiro down onto the dingy couch in the living room. Just by eyeing it Lance knows its not the comfy ones you can sleep in.

“It’s not mine…it’s Matt’s. He used it often when he was making gadgets, plans for Garrison tech, things like that,” Pidge’s voice is quiet and withdrawn. They’ve seated themselves on the edge of couch, Hunk is down on the floor. Arms behind him as he stretches his legs out. While Lance is laying down on his back completely, eyes closed, he’s gotten out of the stolen med-tech suit along with Pidge. The pile of white clothes in the corner of the room.

“So do we just wait till he wakes up now?” Lance asks.

“It’s all we can do,” Pidge responds easily.

“We should take shifts or something! That way if he starts to wake up one of us can let the others know.”The tallest of the trio suggests.

“Sounds like a plan,” the lanky teen chimes.

“I’ll take first shift, you guys did most of the work getting him out now it’s my turn to do something.” Hunk huffs out.

Lance just gives him a thumb up, he’s so worn-out from being tense for the last two hours. Sleep sounds awfully great.

Pidge doesn’t quip an argument, and that definitely catches both Hunk and Lance off guard. They have slid down to the side of the couch, eyes close and breath even.

Hunk smiles, “Ok Lance now you need some sleep, I’ll let you guys know if anything happens.”

Lance doesn’t even hear the rest of the sentence before he’s gone.

 

* * *

 

Lance groans as he lifts his form off the ground. He was in some sort of ship, the sounds around him all too familiar to the Garrison’s ships he’s worked with.

There’s a creak off in a distance, then the sound of things being thrown off a table. The crashing sound coming out like those in the movies. Loud, as glass shatters and metal hits the floor and wall. It jerks Lance’s attention up and he’s left frozen. He’s not alone. There’s a thudding in a distance.

A growl hums in the vents, the creak of metal replaced by the thudding foot steps of something much bigger and heavier than the Cuban. Lance eyes dash to his surroundings, he needs to _hide_. But there wasn't anything around him that could help, the hall littered with trash, shards of broken glass and overthrown boxes, desks, and shairs.

The time he thought he had is gone, as soon as a vent shaft is ripped open right above him. A wrenching sound of nails on a chalkboard. The metal groans under its pressure before giving away and easily is deforming by whatever creature is making their way to him. Dust flutters and falls onto Lance’s face making him blink in an attempt to get it out of his eyes. Claws emerge from the darkness, white nails that are stain with a deep rust color, a purple hue surrounding it’s fingers and hand. _Blood_. It’s still fresh as the substance drops onto the teens face. Just with the simple realization has Lance gulping down the lump in his throat as he reaches up and touches the blood. Another growl escapes the monsters lips, only now seeming to realize that the boy was there, halting Lance in his actions.

He still hasn’t seen the beast’s face, the dark halls and vents not allowing him to note any features. The Cuban knows that he’s being watch by the thing, it’s intense gaze following every small moment Lance makes. From his trembles to the shudders in his breathing. 

A roar rips from the monster’s throat.

 

* * *

 

Lance wakes up throwing his body up and forward, meanwhile slamming into something hard. A thudding feeling starts to warm its way to his forehead and Lance groans. Covering his face with both of his hands.

“Ouch, man I didn’t mean to startle you.” Hunk’s voice filters through the lanky teen’s panic. His heart is beating so loud he’s sure Hunk could hear it.

The teen removes one of his hands and looks at the other, he’s rubbing the darkening mark that’s appearing on his forehead as well.

“You seemed like you weren’t having a good dream…you wanna talk about it?” Hunk asks, a smile on his face to ease Lance’s fear.

“Yeah..it was just scary..y’know monsters and stuff.” Lance murmurs, he wasn’t even sure what his dream was suppose to mean. Maybe his own fears of what kind of monsters these aliens could be, or what could be his own faith once they’re up in space.

“I get it, no worries, you slept for a while, but it looks like Shiro might be waking up soon?” Hunk notifies him, his body shifting to look at the form on the couch.

A groan escapes Shiro’s lips as Lance notices his hand twitch with movement.

“I didn’t want to be the only one up, when he opens his eyes. He might freak out…” Hunk laughs nervously, hands now fiddling with each other as he looks over to Lance.

The blanket that appeared in his sleep, most likely via Hunk pools down to his hips. The material is soft as Lance runs his fingers through it. “Yeah, I get it, you should wake up Pidge too, I’m sure they won’t want to be left out.”

Hunk nods and makes their way over to the other, starting with gentle calls of their name. Pidge’s eyes scrunch up before fluttering open, still drowned in sleep. They manage to blink away the heaviness that hangs over their frame. The smaller of the two reaches up and rubs their eyes. Hunk says something, but Lance doesn’t catch it. Pidge shakes their head and eyes Lance.

Standing up Lance stretches out the coils in his back, placing his hands on his hands on his lower back as he rolls his shoulders and neck. Pidge has moved away from their resting spotand has pulled out a laptop. Hunk isn’t in the living room, he catches his back disappearing down the hall. Bathroom maybe. Pidge’s fingers are flying over the keyboard, glasses tinted blue from the screen. Lance walks over and drops next to them, leaning his weight into their side and placing his head on top of the hacker.

“What you doing?”

“I’m looking for anything involving us…if the Garrison has managed to identify us or reported us.”

Lance hums and turns his attention to the screen. He checks the time, 4 A.M. There’s code written out as Pidge continues to type away, a series of numbers and letters that are commands to the system. One repeated word that Lance does managed to catch is ‘Denied,’ until the next line of code emerges and is replaced with ‘Accepted.’ The screen flickers and is replaced with the familiar system of the Garrison log books and information that Lance hasn’t seen before.

Pidge starts to click through links and files. Lance watches for a few minutes, reading the snippets of information that comes and go as Pidge skims through information.

“Anything?”

“I don’t see any— wait, there’s something.”  
  
They scroll and find a report, an email sent to Iverson.

_Report Incident: 06.42.17_

_Due to a recent code delta-G reported in the medical ward of Area—74, we have located that ‘Takashi Shirogane,’ was taken from his room. Camera records are able to show two medical officers are the one’s responsible._

There are pictures attached to the email, the grain-y footage of Lance in Pidge disguised as the med-techs. Pidge hacking the frame of Shiro’s medical room while Lance kept watch. There are a few more as they walked through the hall. Then finally with the two of the hauling Shiro down the hall to the exit doors.

_We were not able to identify the two officers in question. Their escape was accomplished with a Blue Jeep, mode l#XXX. During the pursuit four Garrison vehicles we’re damaged and they were able to escape. We have notified local officers to report if any of the reported Jeep model are seen in a 100km area from the base, while we try and locate the intruders._

_“_ Ok, so good thing we covered the jeep with the sheet then. Hopefully that won’t give into any suspicions…” 

“They also don’t know who we are! So that will definitely save us in time, just—“ Pidge cuts themselves off, they’re head turning to their right. There’s a movement of a hand, going through hair and a voice cutting through.

“What…where am I?”

Lance and Pidge spring to their feet, laptop forgotten on the floor as they move over to hover Shiro who slowly starts to open his eyes.

“Matt…?” Shiro whispers out as he stares as Pidge, who only shakes their head. They purse their lips and look away.

“Uh…hi? I know it’s a lot, I’m Lance.” Shiro shifts his attention away from the smaller teen, now looking up to Lance. He stops and looks him over, trying to piece memories and if he recognized him.

“You’re a cadet, right? Same class as Keith.” That was an honest surprise, out of all the people Shiro would recognize from his class and hundred of students. Lance, the ‘goof ball’, was one of them.

“Yeah, fighter class.” Lance doesn’t comment that he was originally a cargo pilot, only moving up once Keith was taken out of the classes and into Kerberos mission.

Hunk walks back in and stares wide-eye at Shiro, quickly greeting and introducing himself. Before flickering between the two others and back down to the pilot.

“Hunk, engineer.” The larger teen supplies, Shiro smiles.

“Shiro, nice to meet you,” he nods and pushes himself up, having his back rest on the arms of the couch.

There’s a gleam in Shiro’s eyes, before they harden. Question time, Lance thinks. Glancing to his right Pidge’s own face the same, they want answers. Hunk has moved over, shuffling over the carpet to stand right behind the two of them.

“Where am I?” Shiro starts.

“Earth! If you didn’t know, but if you want to be more specific, Pidge’s bother’s apartment..” Lance trails off, theres a flicker of recognition as the Commanding Officer looks around.

“You were being held in a Garrison medical facility, but—” Pidge states but Lance cuts them off.

“We got you out, you’ve been on earth for almost a week. Do you remember anything else?”

Shiro shakes his head, cupping half of his face with his hand. His human one. Eyes down to look at his lap. 

“I remember the crash, Iverson and the doctors telling me they were going to put me under for my safety—but everything is a blur. I told them not to, that there was something coming something bad and we need to prepare for it…a lot of my memories are jumbled right now, sorry. There are a few things I remember, though…” Shiro trails off, his gaze now back onto Lance and Pidge instead of his lap.

“Do…you know anything else about what happened to the rest of your crew?” Pidge supplies.

“You really do look like Matt you know…he showed me pictures when we were up there.” The statement catches Pidge off guard as they bite their lips and contain themselves. Shiro hums to himself and sighs. Hand going up to run along the tuff of white hair.

“Is he still alive?” The short teen asks instead.

“I don’t know…when I left…he was the one that pushed me into the pod. I don’t know how I got here.”

Pidge doesn’t find the heart to ask him any more questions, Lance can see that. Their thoughts overwhelmed by snippets of information of their brother. They just want confirmation. They just want to know if Matt is even _alive_. Lance feels sorry, he wants to say something to them, but he knows Pidge would take it as a sign of pity and they wouldn’t want that.

“He was with Keith if that helps.” Shiro adds, there’s a sad smile on his face, “And if there’s one person that I know that can keep him alive, it’s him.”

Pidge nods this time, “I need some time alone.”

Lance and Hunk don’t say anything letting them file out of the living room and into the hall. He was able to catch a small glimmer in their eyes, he hopes that they don’t start crying.

Shiro watches them go, after a few seconds he starts his own questions.

“Why did you guys risk to get me out of there?”

“Pidge wanted answers and we wanted to help” Hunk says, and now that the Cuban thinks about it, it is as simple as that.

“Her dad and brother are out there, she just wants them back and we…just don’t think its right. They framed the whole thing on the two of you. Keith and you. On why the ship didn’t return.”

Shiro stares at him, surprised before the emotion is slowly replaced by understanding, “Of course, if they didn’t the Garrison’s name would be dragged through the mud.”

The two of them stay quiet, Shiro continues. “It would be easier, just to say it was someone else fault, the Garrison takes pride over anything else—”

“But they sent you up there knowing! Knowing something was going on up there!” Lance cuts in, upset.

“How do you know that?” Shiro hasn’t mentioned aliens once, he gives them a look, easily rivaling one go his mother’s. Lance couldn’t lie to him.

Huffing and crossing his arms over his chest, lips drawn to a straight line Lance mutters, “It’s just…Pidge found out ok?”

“Pidge? You mean Katie?”

“They like to go by Pidge now, but yeah.” Hunk says, laying a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “They were looking around where they shouldn’t be and found some of your mission logs that were sent between HQ here and your ship.”

“Show me.” The Commanding Officer demands.

“I have to get Pidge, I don’t think they’ll like it if I just touch it—” Hunk starts. 

“It’s ok, I’m back.”

Pidge’s eyes were red, puffed, theres a small sniffle from their nose. She was crying. But the three of them don’t say anything. Hunk and Lance share a knowing look. Shiro just watches them as they move from the hall and to their laptop that they have left on the floor before.

Picking it up they head over to Shiro, gently laying the laptop on his lap after looking up the two files she has stored away.

Minutes pass as Shiro waits for the first one to start.Shiro’s own voice filters through the speakers of the machine, which is strange seeing as the man is in front of him.

“I remember this one…” Shiro moves his right hand, a faint whurl of the inside mechanics sound as he does. He skips along the video, stopping briefly to the moment Keith entered, there’s a look on his face that Lance isn’t able to identify before he’s skimming to the end. 

Once he’s done, Shiro automatically clicks the next video, the only two in the file that Pidge has open. 

This time Keith’s voice is a panic compared to the calm of before, and Shiro watches the video earnestly, not sparring a moment to what it feels like breathe. Both of his hands are closed to a tight fist. 

The video plays a second time, and it’s just as painful to hear. Keith’s voice so raw with emotion of pure hatred towards the Garrison and his accusations holding true. They should have turn around, they should have just blown up the base, because whatever is left in there was surely more dead then alive. 

 _“You’re all dead to us.”_ Sends a shiver along Lance’s spine. Shiro’s reaction far worse, his eyes close and he pushes the palms of his hands into his eyes. Letting out a loud sigh as he tilts his head back. His hands following the motion. 

There’s a beat of silence among the four of them.

“When was this sent?” The pilot asks. 

“By the reports it was sent a few days ago, it might have been longer though, messages only filtering through now,” Pidge replies, unsure themselves. “There was a mention of a jammer before in the other one.”

Shiro remains still, taking in the information. “This had to be sent when we all got separated, I didn’t know he managed to get a message through…though at the time I don’t think it mattered. Then days later I’m being thrown into a ship, and I’m leaving them behind.” Shiro manages to tumble out.

Lance turns over to Hunk, who stares at Shiro with a sad look before glancing over to Lance, mouthing, ‘What do we do now?’

The teen shrugs. He doesn’t know where to go from there. How are they suppose to get back there. There’s no way they can manage to steal an entire ship under the Garrison’s nose and rocket off into space. If they want to save Pidge’s family and Keith, they’re going to have to try some way to get there first.

“Ship?” Pidge asks, their eyebrows furrow, “I thought you crashed in a pod.”

Shiro looks back to them, confuse. “No, it was a smaller ship from the aliens, that’s the only reason I got back so quick, I passed out for a majority of it, but they have hyperspace technology.” 

“Something that we haven’t developed yet…” the hacker trails off.

“And knowing the Garrison they have that thing under lock and key…” Hunk chips in.

“So will that be our way there?” The Cuban asks.

“I managed the ship with multiple jumps, since we were so deep into space… I think these smaller ships probably can’t travel the same distance alien motherships can. It would take maybe a few days at max to get to The Mayfield.” Shiro states, pushing himself off and couch, slowly, but surely standing at full height. The medical suit still hugging his figure tightly. Lance looks away, they really need to get him a change of clothes. “But I can’t ask you three to come with me—“

“Don’t even start with that bullshit, I’m going to save my _family_. You’ll need an coms specialist, an engineer, and a co-pilot.” Pidge snaps, their hand pointing to themselves, then Hunk, and lastly Lance with their respective positions in the Garrison. 

Shiro gapes at them for a moment, not sure how to respond or continue.

“We basically kidnapped you from a military medical ward, if we’re gonna do this might as well go all the way.” Lance adds, smiling. Underneath the facade, however, he’s unsure. Space? With no back up? How would they survive? He reels back, he’s really starting to sound like Hunk. 

“Then this will strictly be a rescue mission,” the tallest of them eyes each one individually, “we won’t have hero’s and we won’t risk ourselves dying to kill these monsters. If we find that any of them are…dead. We won’t do anything in a desperate attempt to find them alive.”

There’s a moment when Pidge flatters, the thought of their family gone is something they want to avoid. They want to find the both of them alive. “Okay. Fine.”

“Do you think this is a good idea? Going into space? No back up? By ourselves with an alien ship we probably don’t know how to use?” Hunk fidgets nervously, shifting from one leg to another.

“We’ll figure it out.” Pidge nods to themselves, smiling towards the dark-haired teen. “I can always make some sort of translator?”

“Alright, alright, let’s calm down…” Shiro starts to commend, “we need to think of a plan first…and get me a change of clothes.” 

“Uh… I dont think we have anything your size here…” Lance notes. 

Lance is too skinny, Pidge is too small, and Hunk’s clothes would be too big.

“It’s ok, I have a place where the Garrison won’t find us. We can do some recon there and try to figure out where they’re hiding that ship. It’s close to the Garrison, but far enough to where we won’t get attention.” 

“Oh and where exactly is this place?” Pidge asks. 

“The desert.”


	2. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So…uh…how do we like make it go?” Lance says slowly. Dropping the bag near the entrance of the cockpit. The control panel looking nothing like he’s used to. A simple dashboard with a language he can’t even begin to understand. 
> 
> “Can we make it English? That would be helpful.” Hunk says, poking a few of the buttons, Pidge quickly barrels through slapping Hunk’s hand away.
> 
> “Let’s not touch the weird alien ship please. Just give me a sec, maybe the Garrison managed to get something on it…” Pidge plots down onto the floor laptop materializing in front of them. 
> 
> “How do you even have signal?’ The cuban lifts an eyebrow up in question.
> 
> "Mooching off Garrison wifi, even if it sucks.” Lance can hear the grin in the smaller teen’s voice.

“What are we going to find in the desert?”

“Some supplies and a change of clothes.” Shiro states, leveling each of them with a look before turning and heading toward the door. There’s almost no question on wether they’re going or not.

Hunk leans over and whispers to the other two, “Did Shiro live out in the desert? That’s strange, I would have thought he lived at the Garrison or something.”

Pidge shrugs, looking over Lance, who mirrors Hunk’s confusion. Wide eyes and a frown Shiro might be his hero, but that doesn’t mean he stalked him.

“I might have an idea to where they might be hiding the ship, where we’re going is technically private property, no one should bother even going there in the first place. It’s not really on record,” Shiro breaks through the silent conversation the three of them are having catching their attention again. The taller male stops for a moment and looks over to them, placing his hands on his hips.

“Uhhh…” Pidge and Hunk echo both of them giving one another a quick glance.

“We should head their now, it’s early morning easier with less traffic, less noticeable. I”ll lead the way there.” The commanding officer states eyes jumping to Lance. Of course, Lance has the car.

The brunet doesn’t find a reason to argue with him, his Garrison training getting the best of him as he starts to follow Shiro’s command. Years of drills and repeated salutes to commanding officers have him doing everything the Garrison trained him to do. Follow his commanding officer when orders are issued out. By the looks of it Pidge and Hunk are the same, standing tall and at attention. Shiro had fluently taken the wheel, setting his tasks of what he needs to do and how to get it done. An all round leader and star pilot. There wasn’t anytime to mourn his teammates or question their fates. Things need to get done.

Lance nods, “Okay, I guess we’ll take my car even if it’s risky.”

“As soon as we’re out of the city we should be safe.” Pidge says as they start to pack their stuff up. A bag all to familiar to Lance and Hunk stuff with technology and papers with math problems he’s sure they won’t understand.

As far as him and Hunk go both of them have nothing but the clothes on their backs. However Lance thinks that they won’t really need anything like that where they night be going. Space? He doesn’t think he can just bring a suitcase with him like it’s a vacation.

“Cool…” Lance pulls the keys for his jeep out of his pocket. “Is there anything else that we might need?” He looks over to Shiro who’s waiting patiently by the door, arms crossed as he waits his body leaning up against the wall.

“As far as I know, space suits, but I’m sure we can find those once we find that ship.” Tilting his head Shiro smiles.

Pidge is ready by the time he and Shiro have finished talking. They’re standing in the middle of the living room. Taking in it’s atmosphere. With there back turned he sees the smallest teens shoulders shake and it’s a private moment that he doesn’t want to interrupt.

Lance’s thoughts drift. Thinking of his own family and how ending up in space with an unapproved rescue mission might fly with his mom. How would he explain to his family that he’s going off to space? One lie to his mother and he’s sure that he’ll be found out.

The cuban stifles a groan, he’ll deal with it as it comes he guesses. Quickly he heads out, removing the tarp over his jeep and throwing it in the back. It’s early, the sun barely peeking through the horizon and early morning clouds, but that doesn’t mean they won’t get spotted if they aren’t careful.

Shiro and Hunk are the next ones out, Hunk following Shiro closely just incase he loses his footing. They both sit in the back, Shiro more than likely wanting to avoid cameras and Hunk to avoid actively watching Lance’s horrible driving. He might not be the best, but he’s not that _bad_. As the cuban buckles in and waits for Pidge, he quickly goes through his mirrors readjusting each one. It’s only a few seconds later as they file out. Ripping the door open and jumping in, throwing the large back at their feet.

“Everything okay?” Lance question, giving the other a look of understanding.

“Yeah…I guess I’m just hoping Matt and Dad are okay.” Pidge sighs out eyes downcast into their lap. It’s been a lot of information to take in, but for Pidge it still might feel like it’s not enough.

Lance places a hand on their shoulder, squeezing it

“We’ll find them don’t worry.”

* * *

 Some how they manage to get out to open desert without a problem. Hunk and Lance call it luck while Pidge says that the chance that they would have been caught was 11%. Traffic patterns and cop routes that Pidge has some how memories helping them ease through the city without a problem. The best friends share a look through the rearview mirror. Pidge just laughs.

Shiro hadn’t said much through the drive, keeping his gaze out through the window. Only occasionally giving directions. Turn here, turn there, keep going straight. His thoughts must be else where for sure. Lance wishes he has the guts to ask him, but he knows that Shiro as much as he faints an easy air of kindness and openness, he’s closed off. Watching the city he hasn’t seen in a year become a daze

Shiro might trust them, after all they did break him out from Garrison medical, but he doesn’t know the three of them. Besides he’s only met Pidge a handful of times, because he worked with Matt. Why would he spill his heart out to strangers?Lance spares him a glance through the mirror. As if sensing him Shiro shifts his attention to stare back, his gray eyes are an unexpected storm before they’re quickly sheltered by a small smile. Moments later the adult turns back to the scenery outside of the car. Lance wonders what he might be thinking about. Maybe how things have change regardless of not being on Earth or maybe how things might have stayed the same. Maybe his thoughts are still in space wondering about his crew mates and what might have happen with him gone.

The drive is quiet saved for the low hum of the radio that plays, Lance keeps an eye to the cars behind him and those that pass him, still weary.

“You’re going off road from here there should be a dirt path coming up,” Shiro says, leaning forward and towards the middle of the two passenger seats.

“Here?” Lance says, it’s faint but he’s able to see a faint cut among the bush.

“Yeah, just follow it for now.” Shiro pushes forward more, allowing him to see more.

Turning on his blinker he slows down the vehicle to ease from the road onto the dessert sand. The car uneasily drops from the road onto the dirt path, swaying everyone in the car left to right. The brunet has traveled these same roads down to and from the Garrison and he’s never noticed it, the way the road wines through the desert.

How many times has Shiro gone through here then? Even after his disappearance he hasn’t seem to forgotten the meander dirt road. He’s more than familiar with the area to able to travel with little to no visible markers to tell him where to go.

“Now you’ll merge off of this and towards those duel hills, you’ll see a small house that’s where we’re going.”

That catches Pidge’s and Hunk’s attention and they lean forward to look to what Shiro is pointing at. Slowly, but surely they pass through the hills and a distance away is a shack. Not a house, Lance thinks it barely looks like it can fit anything inside.

From a distance it’s hard to tell, however, as they get closer Lance is able to identify a very familiar land-speeder. More specifically _Keith’s_ land-speeder. It’s bright red paint and white accents are covered with a layer of sand. It hasn’t been touched for a while, the cuban notes. Piles of sand gathering at its base. He pulls and parks right next to it. Shiro wastes no time as he gets out and walks up to the door of the shack.

There’s a second he hesitates eyes on the land speeder as he pass it, the look on his face falls. There most be memories linked to it that Lance can’t even begin to know or understand.

Shiro wastes no time to test the door nob, it rattles yet doesn’t open. Lance didn’t think it would be that easy he opens his mouth to say something but stops himself. Shiro steps to the side and eyes the lining of the window, the man reaching up and patting the top of the wooden frame until he pulls a key.

Lance blinks. Stepping out of his car and throwing the door shut, he doesn’t bother with locking the door. There’s no point out here in the middle of nowhere. Pidge and Hunk aren’t that far behind. The brunet looks over to the horizon. Using one of his hands in attempt to block out the burning sun from his eyes. It’s faint but he can see the buildings of the Garrison.

“You live here?” Lance asks as Shiro slides the key in and opens the door. The redounded click as it unlocks.

“Kinda,” he doesn’t say anything more.

Lance steps onto the small porch, the wood creaking under his weight. He worries that it will completely give out on him but it doesn’t. The wood holds sturdyand Shiro is waiting as he holds the door open for the three of them.

Inside is definitely more roomy. There’s an old couch on the far left of the room, there are piles of boxes and papers. In the center there’s a slab of wood held up by cement blocks. Books line a shelf, drawing his attention to a land-speeder poster in front of him, it was a newer model than the one outside set to release earlier this year. There are large machines that Lance saw in Matt’s apartment briefly. Radios and other equipment Lance has no idea what is or does. To his right there’s a hall that leads down to two doors more than likely a bedroom and bathroom. Right by that wall is littered with a constellation map, various notes and pictures of carvings that Lance has never seen. A map of the area and pictures of out cropping of the mountains. It strangely looks like those conspiracy boards.

“Don’t mind that, it’s one of Keith’s projects,” the commanding officer more than likely feeling the judgmental stare that Lance is giving the board. “I’m just going to change, I’ll be right back.”

He disappears down to the hall and into one of the rooms.

“Are we in Keith’s home then?” Lance asks once Shiro is out of earshot. “It’s….not what I expected, I kinda assumed Keith formed at the Garrison when he was on Earth.”

Pidge makes a face and shrugs, walking up to the board and giving it a strange look as well, “Maybe? But hey I didn’t know Keith was into these kind of things. At the Garrison he never gave off that vibe you know?”

Hunk nods and looks at the board reading the notes, “It must be some sort of hobby, right? He’s talking about some blue lion? Weird.” Hand resting at his chin, fingers tapping it lightly.

Lance makes an ‘I don’t know’ sound, shaking his head in the process. There’s nothing else that catches his attention until it lands on a frame on the table. It’s knock down to where it covers the photo. Gingerly Lance picks it up.

He’s surprised to see that it’s a photo of Keith and Shiro. The taller male, is laughing and smiling down at Keith, who seems to be holding his stomach as he’s laughing. The both of them aren’t looking at the camera. Keith is sporting his red crop jacket, black t-shirt, and jeans. Shiro in a black vest and sporting two human arms as his left one is curled around Keith’s waist and black jeans as well. The Cuban wonders who might have taken it and where they were, blurry figures behind them. It’s a tender moment that make’s Lance put the photo down just as he found it.

Shiro’s relationship with his hot-head peer is deeper than he thought. He knew they were close, Keith rarely out of sight from Shiro, vice-versa. Find one of them and you’ll find the other close behind.

“Sorry about the wait, the medical suit was harder to take off than I thought.” The pilot laughs and scratches the back of his head.

Shiro is wearing the same outfit in the photo, though it looks a bit smaller. Shiro seemed to have gain some sort of mass since his abandonment on the Mayflower. The officer is accompanied by a large bag swung on his shoulder.

“I keep some clothes here for whenever Keith and I are out here, thought it would be better than just buying clothes or going to my apartment. Garrison would be watching for that, Keith never put this on paper so…” he leaves the rest of the sentence for the three of them to complete.

“Yeah it’s no problem,” Hunk responds with easily. “I wouldn’t want to stay in that medical suit either.”

Pidge turns and points at the board, “Do you know what he was working on?” Shiro blinks in surprise at Pidge’s bluntness, before a smile appears on his lips.

“He could never really explain it in a way I could understand it…but it sums up to that the various cave markings around the area are all talking about a blue lion, ” he walks closer to the board and points to a photo. Strange etchings in stone, vaguely looking like a sitting lioness. “Keith said that there’s some sort of energy that keeps drawing him out here. The only thing he managed to decipher was an event happing sometime in the future, but since we were chosen for Kerberos he never got to the bottom of it.”

“Huh.” Pidge’s attention quipped, “Is this a photo of the message?” They point to another photo, Shiro hums in agreement. Making Pidge pull out their phone and taking a photo.

Lance is intrigued listening to the tallest’s explain it’s strange but one of those things you would hear of on television. Maybe Keith can make a living on those type of shows, he looks like he could fit so perfectly.

“Ok, since we’re here…we’ll need to take a few things. You all don’t have the necessary fighting skills, but—“ Shiro has walked over to one of the boxes, snapping the lid open. Dust filters up, making the officer cough and wavy it away.

A silence falls among the trio.

“Uh why do you have these guns here?” Hunk voices.

“They were Keith’s Dad’s, he never found a reason to get rid of them. We kept them here. I didn’t want them in our apartment. His dad was a fireman, though he did serve as a cop for while if I remember correctly. Keith rarely mentions him.” Shiro says absentmindedly as he pulls a few fire arms out and the ammunition with it.

“I only have basic training with these just like you do, but these will come in handy when facing against those things.” It doesn’t sound like whatever they’re facing is exactly friendly.

Lance doesn’t even know where to start. Counting, the other only pulled out three sets of firearms. He stuffs them into the bag he pulled out from before.

“Uh what about you?” Lance questions.

“Oh, I have my arm, there shouldn’t be a problem.” His voice comes out somewhat tense.

“What do you mean?” Pidge asks, prodding. 

Instead off explain Shiro raises his right arm, his entire hand glowing purple. That’s unexpected.

Hunk inches forward to touch it and Shiro pulls away. “I’ve seen this thing melt steel, I don’t think its a good idea to touch it.”

Hunk nods frantically, drawing his hand away “That’s definitely dangerous.” Shiro just gives him a sympathetic smile. 

“We’ll start planning and then move out, knowing the Garrison they should be keeping that ship a little off from the main base.” He stands and moves towards the map pointing to a area nestled in-between high cliffs. “Around here, I’ve been there once or twice for Kerberos before it was announced, it’s pretty well out of the way where most of the staff besides high level know about it.”

“Alright.” The three of them say at once.

* * *

Viewing the sunset out in the middle of nowhere is different, Lance thinks. No tall buildings or Garrison insignia  in the corner of his eye. The suns rays make the sand glow red, the mountains dark shadows a contrast to the bright light around them. The sky is clear from any clouds and leaves the sky fading from a dark blue, to purple to bright orange surrounding the defending sun. It’s not the usual sunsets that the cuban sees from his apartment window. Specks of dirt swirl with the wind once it starts to pick up. It makes the small fringe that Lance have flick back leaving his forehead bare. 

“It’s a nice view isn’t it?” A deep voice breaks Lance’s thoughts, turning around he sees Shiro stepping down from the porch of the shack. The patch of white hair moves gracefully with the wind as he steps out.

“Yeah…it’s really nice.” The Cuban turns back to gaze to the sky, slowly being replaced by the night.

“There’s nothing quite like it, just out here…you can really take it in.” Shiro comes up and stands right next to Lance, crossing his arms over his chest. “I missed this when I was on Kerberos,” he tags on like an after thought.

“How was space?” Lance blurts out, it’s been in the back of his head for a whileand he’s not sure what to expect once the team gets up there. It’s only been his goal since first doing the Garrison.

“It’s a lot of nothing and a lot of something.” He chuckles, “We managed to go well past our solar system for a while, we visited planets with things I’ve never seen. We didn’t find alien life at the time…but space was just open, too open for just the ship and the rest of the crew.”

“Did it get to you sometimes?”

Shiro hums, almost reluctant to answer, “Keith didn’t mind the way I did that for sure, he was used to it in a way I wasn’t.”

Lance nods, the other avoiding the question, but Lance doesn’t push instead jumping to a different subject., “Are you and Keith like…” he can't seem to finish the question, but the taller of the two gets the idea, reading Lance’s thoughts.

“We never put a label on it, but I would like to think we are.” Shiro shrugs, there’s a smile on his face as he thinks of Keith.

 _Are_. It’s the word that Lance clings to, Shiro desperately wants to believe that what he left behind is still there, but Lance knows Murphy’s Law likes to come into play at the worse times.

The sun sets and the warm air around the two of them slowly turns cold.

“Are you two losers ready to go?” Pidge yells causing two of them turn around. Hunk stands behind the small teen as they hold the door open.

“Hunk needs to set off to get those space suits so we need your keys Lance.” Pidge adds once they’re close enough.

Hunk walks over and hands Lance a bag. It’s loaded with their weapons and ammunition, in exchange the cuban hands him the keys.

“Take care of _Linda,”_ Lance smiles adjusting the bag onto his back _._

 _“_ Like always dude.” Hunk gives him a salute. Watching him go, _Linda_ spares nothing as she starts with ease. The night lights flicker on and Lance sees his friend give him a final thumbs up before pulling away to take the car the way they came.

“Now we do our part.” Pidge says, pushing their glasses up along the bridge of their nose.

“Uh… are you sure the land-speeder can hold all of us?” Lance has his doubts, even in the safe hands of the Garrison’s greatest pilot.

“I’ll make sure to go slow.” Shiro tries to calm the other. He swings the keys in front of both Pidge and Lance before setting off to Keith’s land-speeder.

Shiro swings a leg over with ease, clicking the key into place. He wraps his hands along the handle and twists. For a second the engine stutters starts up and turns off immediately right after. Shiro tries once more.

“Come on,” he mutters underneath his breath. The teens watching.

Again the engine stutters before it roars to life, the sand sputters and goes flying as the speeder starts to gain some altitude. Lance watches the man test the controls. When was the last time he drove one of these?

“Alright, two of you get on.” Shiro jerks his head over his shoulder. Pidge scurries first sliding right behind the safety of Shiro, wrapping their arms around the broader male waist. Lance gets stuck with holding onto the metal for dear life behind the two of them.

“Just trust me,” the smile on Shiro’s face does make him feel a little safer.

* * *

He’s screaming. 

Lance is screaming at the top of his lungs and no one is going to stop him anytime soon. Shiro just road off a _cliff_. A goddamn cliff. Did space make people throw away their sense of safety? Their sense of not going off the rails? Their self-preservation?

He hears Pidge screaming too. Lance tries and open his eyes to grasp a bit more of the situation, unfortunately he just sees Shiro’s smile and a laugh bubbling it’s way through the surface. He has a death grip on the land-speeder and suddenly wishes for seatbelts. Why didn’t they have seatbelts on these stupid things.

Shiro continues to laugh, hair twirling with the wind. Glad to know someone is enjoying the way down. The wind is blowing his hair in all directions and the gust in his eyes forces his eyes back to a close. Suddenly his world shifts and the speeder bounces right before it hits the ground, treading forward. His stomach feels like it’s in his throat.

Between gasps Lance yells, “Did you really have to?” There’s a ringing in his ears.

“It was the shortest way there.” Shiro gives him one of his dazzling smiles again, glancing over his shoulder.

“Please warn us next time.” Pidge adds, their face pale. Their grip around Shiro has plastered them to the other’s back, refusing to let go.

“There aren’t anymore cliffs I need to drive off of on the way there, I promise.” Lance gives the tall male a look that says that he doesn’t trust the promise at all.

“There better not be, I might throw up.” Lance groans out.

The rest of the drive is easy going saved for the occasional sound that the engine makes that doesn’t sound safe at all.

It’s a long drive, but they arrive on time according to their plan.

“Wow,” is the first thing Pidge says when they pull out a pair of binoculars. The three of them laying down on the top of a cliff. A good distance away from this hidden Garrison outpost. Lance squints and tries to make out a few things, but settles to snatch the binoculars out of Pidge’s hands.

It’s no wonder almost no one knows about this part of the Garrison considering half of it is closed off into part of a cave. There are a few Garrison issued vehicles driving between the cave entrance that is covered by a large tarp. There is a set of a few guards making rounds. Crates and metal boxes piled up on top of one another, Lance wonders what’s in them. Large stadium lights illuminate the area, shadows casted by the guards look strange and monster like. Lance tries not to think of an analogy for it.

“They must have pushed it into there,” Shiro gestured to the area past the tarps.

“Leaving an alien ship out in the open doesn’t sound like a good idea, so it’s probable,” Pidge adds on.

“Hunk should be here soon,” Lance whispers turning to look over his back. The landspeeder was park a bit off to where they were, Hunk should have gotten the GPS location sent to his phone to where to leave the car.

“We’re scouting while we wait for Hunk to rendezvous with us with the suits." Pidge says, snatching back the binoculars.

“We can’t go in blind, we develop a plan and we stick to it.”

The three of them stay hidden for another thirty minutes before they hear some movement behind them. Hunk sliding down from a small incline in the mountain ridge.

“Did you manage to get the suits?” Lance asks, looking over his shoulder at Hunk.

“Yeah, I almost got caught by some of the guards, but I gave them the slip, they didn’t see me.” Hunk says as soon as he’s closed to them, showing off two bags. “Did you guys find a way to get in yet?”

“There’s a pattern to their movements, when they move from the pole to crates,” Shiro says, pointing.

“Good eye Shiro,” Pidge responds with, binoculars moving to see what he meant.

“We’re lucky they don’t have outposts with an overview. When we get in, we’ll have to be careful. I’ll lead the way,” no one questions Shiro’s orders.

They all get into position, following Shiro’s movements to the best they can. Lance follows second, then Pidge, then Hunk. Shiro creeps between the boxes with practice ease. Almost no sound to his foot steps. Lance wonders if that was what he was doing for the past year. Stuck on a ship with aliens, sneaking around must have been a priority.

Shiro gives a signal and Lance darts between two crates. Seconds later a guard passes them unaware. They repeat the motion two more times, allowing Hunk and Pidge to catch up.

It takes awhile, having a few scares when one of them trips or ends up messing in the timing. Lance thanks the Lord all mighty that these guards are stupid and always get their attentiondrawn away in the exact moment. Maybe the universe wants them to actually make it there to save the lives of Pidge’s family and Keith.

They reach the tarp, a sliver of it has light pouring through. The guards in front of them oblivious to the team of trespassers behind them. Shiro makes another motion for all of them to follow as soon as he checks the coast is clear.

Once they’re in they duck behind a few tables. A few feet away men and women in lab coats are talking, pointing to their notes then gesturing to their right. Luckily they’re out of sight, in the corner of the cave. Lance follows the motion of the lab officers finally land onto the alien ship that Shiro arrived in.

It’s definitely bigger than the issued ships the Garrison reports on having. It’s oval in nature, but still holds some sleekness in design. Sharp wings and rudder. It’s paint a dark purple, then accented in lighter shades. The glass like material of the cockpit is a bright red, a contrast to the overwhelming purple.

Pidge snaps him out of it as they tap him. Pointing to keep going, Shiro moving ahead. They take the lead behind Shiro, leaving Lance with Hunk. The two of them share a look and continue. A nervous look paint Hunk’s face.

As the cuban passes he catches a part of the scientists conversation.

“It’s nothing we’ve every seen.”

“The material is stronger than anything we have on Earth, it’s definitely nothing found in this solar system.”

Lance picks up his paces as he sees he’s falling behind. Luckily it appears that there are no guards issued on the inside. Leaving all the scientist unnoticed by their sneaking. Once they’re a good distance away, Shiro breaks the silence.

“The entrance to that thing is on the other side. There’s nothing that can cover us so we’ll have to run. They have their back turned to us, let hope it stays that way.” He gives them a smile, hoping to ease the tension that’s visible on their shoulders.

The weight of his own bag heavier than before. Shiro gives them one last look before taking off towards the ship. The three of them tag along, keeping a good distance to see where he’s going. The first time Lance sees Shiro use his right arm is when he lays it on top of a panel, his hand glows a faint purple outlining his hand and the door opens. The three of them dart in, one after the other as soon as it does.

Shiro files in last. The door closing as soon as he does.

“That was a lot easier than I expected.” Hunk huffs out, hand on his chest. “I swore I thought we would get caught.”

“More positive thinking Hunk!” Lance states, hands on his hips. Shiro moves past them following the small stretch of the hallway to the cockpit.

Pidge is only a step behind the taller male, “Come on guys!”

Another door, another hand that opens the magical alien door.

“So…uh…how do we like make it go?” Lance says slowly. Dropping the bag near the entrance of the cockpit. The control panel looking nothing like he’s used to. A simple dashboard with a language he can’t even begin to understand.

“Can we make it English? That would be helpful.” Hunk says, poking a few of the buttons, Pidge quickly barrels through slapping Hunk’s hand away.

“Let’s not touch the weird alien ship please. Just give me a sec, maybe the Garrison managed to get something on it…” Pidge plots down onto the floor laptop materializing in front of them.

“How do you even have signal?’ The cuban lifts an eyebrow up in question.

"Mooching off Garrison wifi, even if it sucks.” Lance can hear the grin in the smaller teen’s voice.

Their hands fly across the keyboard, multiple pop-up screens later Pidge speaks up. “What I can see is that they’re missing some sort of activation key…they can’t get it to start up? Wonder what kind of energy this thing runs off of.” Pidge starts to ramble off, noting their findings and which Lance finds himself droning out to.

He makes his way to the bridge, Shiro who has settled into the cockpit seat. Eyes down at the flat screen, strange symbols litter the keys.

“How did you start it up the last time?” Lance says, curious.

Shiro frowns and furrows his eyebrows. “I kinda just,” he places his right hand, his robotic arm, down on the strange symbol that looks vaguely like a handprint sign.

There’s immediately a reaction. The screen flickers and powers-up. The purple glow to the room only becoming brighter. The rumble from a distant engine begins.

“Put my hand on the handprint.” Shiro says surprised.

“Oh.” Is all the cuban manages to say.

“I thought all of this might have been the blood loss, I was quite delirious. It seemed too easy?” Shiro snorts, moving his hand away from the screen, settling to the controls. The screen shifts and a holoscreen appears. The darken windshield fades away showing the cave.

“Uh, didn’t that just give is away.” Hunk says nervously, eyes flickering from the tallest of the group to the front of the ship. Bags in his arms.

There’s a siren that immediately goes off after Hunk finishes his sentence. Lance spots a few figures taking off from in front of them. Some throwing themselves behind metal boxes and computer screens.  
“Aw! Come on Hunk you just jinxed us!” Lance yells. there’s a faint sound of some sort of announcement, but the brunet can’t hear it.

“Less talking more flying!” Pidge screeches, squeezing in-between Lance and Shiro, attaching some sort of wires to the panel.

Shiro doesn’t question. Lance doesn’t either when he sees Shiro twist the controls and push them forward, knowing what to do. The ship rocks gaining some height in the small cave. A second later it shoots through the cave pasts the tarps and out into open air.

There’s a bright light that almost blinds Lance as he grips onto the back of the chair and the control panel. Stupid stadium lights. The alarms are a lot louder outside, the sound too similar to ambulance sirens. Through the light the Cuban manages to see more people scrambling below them, a few of them pointing their weapons to the ship and shooting.

The Garrison trio begin to scream as the bullets hit the ship. The sound popping in Lance’s ears. Luckily, none of them break through the metal like material. All of them bouncing off the strange alien metal like rocks.

Shiro jerks the controls to the right, away from almost hitting one of the long poles. He pulls the controls back, turning the ship up and into the night sky.

It won’t be long before the Garrison scrambles their jets and notify their space command of their departure. Lance’s mind storms with thoughts. Will they get shot down and taken into custody? Charged for crimes? Or will the Garrison make them disappear just like how they did with the Garrison crew, leaving them to become scrap goats.

“What are we going to do? We need to do that stupid hyper jump, but we can’t even read—“ the Cuban starts to wave his hand in front of the control panel, “this alien crap.”

“I’m cross referencing, code is still code even in space. If I’m able to just—” Pidge’s grip on their computer leaves their one of their hands white, while the other struggles to type.

“Shiro what are the coordinates to the Mayfield?” Pidge asks, eyes still focused on their screen.

“F29.O23.J28.13.03.” Shiro immediately rattles off, knowing the coordinate by heart. His eyes are still forward completely focused on keeping the ship forward as Earth’s terrain grows farther and farther. “Just a little beyond our solar system.”

“What are you even trying to do?”

“There are logs on this ship, find the coordinates of its location and we can work our way backwards,” the small teen supplies.

Hunk has manage to find somewhere to sit, hand over his mouth as he controls his stomach, face green. Arms worm around one of the bags, the other slide off to the end of where he sat. He wheezes out, “Can we work a little faster then?”

“Come on Pidge, the second we hit space the Garrison battle ships are gonna start shooting, I rather not die, thank you!” Lance adds, glaring over to said teen.

He sees them roll their eyes, “I’m doing what I can that fastest I can! Give me a second!”

“I think we just hit the thermosphere, better get on it Pidge we’ll have a few seconds before making that jump will be difficult. This thing is faster than any ships we have.” Shiro says, quickly glancing over to Pidge and Lance.

An exasperated sigh from teen as they push the laptop into Lance’s hands, “I can work faster with two hands.” Lance obliges and holds it for them.

“I think I got it!” The screen in front of changes. A star map popping up with a glowing, blinking red dot.

“That’s where we’re headed?” Lances asks.

“Yep!” A timer appears right next to the map. A number system he doesn’t recognize so again he assumes that it’s alien.

“How much time?” Shiro asks.

“Thirty seconds, it needs time to prepare.” They slam their laptop shut, pulling it close.

Lance feels his ears pop as they finally arrive into open space. It’s big an empty as he looks out. Saved for the satellites he sees as Shiro races past them.The ship’s alarms go off. Loud and angry.

“What’s that?” Hunk squeaks out.

“Company. Everyone hold on!” Shiro does something and suddenly the ship is upside down. It’s side ways and all ways, making the rest of them rolls with the ship. He suddenly finds an appreciation for seatbelts.

Lance doesn’t think as he reaches out to Pidge. Pulling them close as the ship weaves through the shots. The ship shakes and the two of them lose their balance as they’re thrown to the side. Lance’s back hitting the ship.

In coming shots fly past them. blue lights that fade into the distance some of them narrowly missing as the ship continues to barrel roll and shuffles through the shots. Shiro doesn’t spare any of them a glance as he continues forward. His focus deadly on escaping.

The thirty seconds feel much longer than they should. He can see the way the lead officer’s grip on the sticks become tighter, eyeing the monitor in front of him to keep the ship going.

He feels his stomach stretch, his heart beat faster as the view in front of them shifts. The stars become blurs, white lines as they leap through space. His body tells him that he’s moving too fast. Like those spinny things at the park that twirl round and round. Everything around him seems to become a blur. The cuban’s center feels all off.

“This is how it feels to hyper jump? Ugh I don’t like it at all,” Lance says, feeling queasy.

“I second.” Hunk says.

“Third,” Pidge groans, covering their eyes.

Shiro appears to be in the same state as he lets go of one of the controls to run a hand across his face.

He feels like his head went through a meat grinder as they finally break through the hyper jump. It was nothing more than a few seconds.

“Okay. One jump done.” The smaller brunet says head laying against Lance’s chest.

“One?” Lance screams, looking down to Pidge.

“We needed to get out of there, I could only put Saturn’s coordinates in, though I think I need a breather. More than one jump or we’re all gonna end up like Hunk.” They say as the push themselves off the ground.

“We’re far from the Garrison, which is what we needed.”

“Pidge is right, more than one jump will do more damage than good. Humans aren’t made for this.” Shiro lets out, hitting a few buttons and finally letting go of controls. “I vaguely remember what most of these mean, I had to do multiple jumps on the way back I messed with a few, so we should be fine.”

Lance pushes himself up, wincing at the pain at his back as it throbs from the impact.

“You okay Lance?” Hunk asks, seeing the pain look on the brunet’s face.

“Yeah, we need to get into those space suits though, we can just throw them over our clothes.” The cuban rubs his hand down along his lower back, easing some of the pain.

Everyone nods agreeing to his plan.

Hunk opens the bag he has in his hands, issuing a suit to the each of them. They aren’t chunky and huge like previous models, but slim to fit each persons body. Almost like spandex, saved for material that rolls over their wrists and ankles. Leaving almost a halo like shape around them. These suits are state of the art. The thin material is actually layered with insulators that help compact the temperatures of space, compact air recyclers in the helmet and easy mobile suits.

After a few minutes everyone has slid into the Garrison space suit and for some reason Lance feels dirty. The Garrison has a whole new meaning to him now. It’s not as black and white they usually like to make themselves appear. They’re a company of liars. The Garrison never announced that had developed weapons. They only knew what they did due to the video Pidge dug up. Then the fighter jets they contacted with as soon as they broke through Earth’s atmosphere. They buried the lives for four people into the dirt and looked the other way when they did. They’ve been hiding the essence of aliens instead of doing something to prepare for the inevitable.

Lance wanted to burn the suit and get it off, but he can’t he needs it if he wants to survive.

“Helmets are in the other bag, I made sure to bring extras for the others too.” Hunk says after Lance helps him zip up the final piece of the suit.

“We all ready?” Shiro a step ahead as the helmet hisses and attaches to the suit.

“Copy!” Pidge says as they slip on the helmet as well. Hunk and Lance nod as they follow a suit.

The four them activate the communicators, giving a verbal cue to check the audio.

“Then lets prepare for that second jump.” Shiro slides back into the pilot chair.

Pidge sets off to set the coordinates again, this one the correct area.

“We’re coming Keith.” It low but the voice still breaks through group’s coms. Lance can only pray that they’ll make it in time.

* * *

 At some point Keith really wishes he can just die already. But he can’t. He has to wait for Shiro a part of him says. Yet the tired part of him reminds him of his injuries. His body aches, his back in particular is killing him. His hands feel numb and he feels like he hasn’t had a proper full 8 hours of sleep in a year. Which is probably true.

Matt looks worse, there’s a growing bruise on his cheek along with a deep cut that hasn’t stopped bleeding. Deep and dark bags underneath his eyes, shoulders tense. His knuckles are bruised purple to the point they almost look black. The list can go on.

It was becoming harder and harder to hide from these things. To find a moment to rest. Humans a resilient and stubborn species to just go down that easily. It was becoming nearly impossible to hide from these alien creatures that seem so hellbent on killing them. Matt narrowed it down to it just being in their nature. To dominate. To rule.

Most of their hiding spots have been found, some nestled in corners by piles of debris or deep within vents where their larger and bulkier builds struggle to fit in. After a year on the mothership it was only obvious that their hiding spots will slowly start to dwindle. Yet both Matt and Keith make do, using what they have and their limited Garrison training to fight back long enough to escape the aliens clutches. Their purple and fuzzy claws looking like anything but what they image aliens to look like.

They haven’t seen Sam in ages, but Keith thinks it’s for the best. They left him with enough food and water for another two days or so before they have to go back. But if they do travel back now, they might risk exposing him. That’s the last thing Matt would want and by extension Keith. If Matt loses focus because of Sam possibly dying it would be a time bomb to both of their deaths. As much as he hates to admit it. Being on this ship by himself is a death sentence.

There were only three people that Keith trusted on this ship, which has been narrowed down to two with Shiro’s recent escape. Everyone else on the Mayfield who are still alive by sheer luck can’t be trusted. It’s free game. Anything goes when law and order has affectively been thrown out the window and replaced by the instinct to live.

There has been fewer and fewer people as days go by, Keith notices the usual number of people slowly being picked off like sheep as their tiniest of mistakes lead them to their end.

Food and water wasn’t a problem for the most part, it’s just the struggle of gathering it fast enough where you don’t get caught. The aliens making rounds to these areas like a ritual, waiting to see who will they find once they make it back.

These large stocky creatures easily over taking Shiro in height who was by Earth’s standard tall: 6’2. They easily loom over him and Matt as well, their forms easily at seven to eight feet tall. Eyes boring a bright yellow that glow in the dark corners or in the vents as they wait for someone unexpectedly to pass to drag them up and away.

The only time the pilot was ever able to get a clear look at these things was by chance. Stuck in a medical room as Keith dropped underneath the bed as soon as he heard something above him. It dropped down like a snake, it’s body large and almost cat like. Large upper bodies as the hunch over and walk shifting between all fours to two legs. Some he has seen having tails others don’t, some with fluffy ears, others with just purple skin and markings. Hands are the most similar, describing them as large claws. White nails as they drag them across walls and glass. The sounds they mutter to themselves almost like some sort of language. One thing is for sure every time one of these things disappear the other comes back more dangerous and aggressive than the last.

Keith drags his head for it to thump softly on the wall he is leaning against he’s on watch duty, letting Matt rest for an hour or more depending on how lucky they are. The pilot didn’t mind, it was a testament to their survival, their struggle as they continue to push everyday to make it to the next. But, Keith is slowly starting to lose hope.

It was only a matter of time, there is no help coming. He knows this. Matt and Sam refusing to give into such information. Holding onto feeble dreams and their faith that someone or something will happen that will save them.

Logically, the one thing that can save them is to travel back to Kerberos, their ship. Which is docked on the Mayfield’s ship bay. But in repeated attempts of Matt and Shiro, the aliens guard the hall to the docks knowingly. That bit of information enough to show that these monsters aren’t as stupid as they originally thought. Keith’s mind drifts off. Thoughts from the week recycling through his eyes.

* * *

 A week ago Keith had launched a plan with Matt, leaving Shiro out of the circle. Knowing that Shiro would all right refuse to agree with it. That it’s too risky and would put all of their lives in danger.

His plan to instead try using the aliens ship, get to their space pods or ships and get at least Shiro on there. Their best bet to possible rescue would be by proxy: Shiro and Matt, if they could. The best chance. The message that Keith sent from the bridge of the Mayfield was nothing. There was no way for them to get aresponse. The radio jammer in the way if it did get through it would take days to get to the Garrison and even then there’s no guarantee.

Matt questioned at the time, “Why at least Shiro? Why not you or just me?”

“Because they didn’t kill him the first time they got him, they gave him a weapon and let him live..that by itself is enough to know that they want Shiro for something else. We can’t just let them do that and you owe him.” Keith growled out at the time. He was upset. His mind flashing back to when Shiro was promptly dragged away from Keith. “Shiro pushed you out of the way, you were the one that was suppose to be taken.” Matt can’t argue with that.When Shiro was dragged down a hall and into a vent leaving nothing more than a bloody trail behind. At the time he thought that Shiro was gone. Dead.

It haunted Keith to the point where nightmares replaced precious time of sleep. Until on their fifth month on the Mayfield Shiro reappeared, this time with a scar and a robotic arm. Keith didn’t question.

He grabbed Shiro and pulled him to a hug, burying his face into the man’s shoulder. Refusing to let go, that it would all be a dream that he would wake up from. Keith didn’t remember when was the last time he cried. It was a long time ago for sure. More than likely when his father passed leaving him alone.

The plan to escape almost failed. Shiro was injured, attacked by one of the aliens before Matt managed to land a solid hit along its head with a metal pole, knocking it out. This one was completely different. It stood straight compared to the one they’ve been running from on the Mayfield. There were subtle differences. This one had attacked with some sort of weapon instead of it’s claws. The beam grazing Shiro’s side, leaving a faint purple hue glowed along his hip. The strange thing had been thrown down the hall, as much as he wanted to go and investigate now was not the time. 

The two do them dragging Shiro to a ship, throwing him in the pilot chair and Matt somehow managing to put the coordinates to Earth. There was nothing the two of them could do for his bleeding wound. Keith hoping that he’ll make it in time back to Earth to get some much needed help.

“Ok Matt, you know the plan. Take care of him.”

“Woah, woah, woah, I can’t just leave you now. With that thing knocked out, more of the aliens are definitely going to show up—“

“We already agreed!”

“That was before Shiro got injured and us knocking out the monster in the hall,”

Keith growled, frustrated, “Matt we’re not going to argue about this right now, you’re going to Earth.”

“Earth?” A new voice broke through the duos argument.

“Shiro—“ Keith doesn’t get to finish.

“We’re sending you to Earth. You need to get the Garrison have them send the military and a rescue team. They won’t listen to me or Keith so you’re our best chance to get help.” Matt states walking over to Shiro and squeezing his shoulder, “You’ll be the one going you need medical attention that we can’t give you here. At least over there you’ll have a better chance.” There’s a beat of silence as the two of them make eye contact, a conversation with no words.

“Matt you’re going with him!” Keith insists, he hopes it will work, convince him to go. That the two of them will be safe and far from here. Keith is a survivor he’ll be fine by himself with Sam.

Shiro looks over to Keith and the raven-haired teen has to retrain from yelling at Shiro to listen to him and make Matt go too. It’s futile, Shiro wouldn’t want that.

“Please...take care of him.” Shiro manages to say as he grits through the pain in his side. Keith knows he lost with that. There’s nothing that will detour Matt now.

“You got it, man.” Matt steps away hand dropping down to his side as he turns and keys in a few more things into the panel.

“This should set everything up, once you’re in open space just hit this. It looks like they have hyperspace technology, might take you a few jumps, but you’ll be home soon.” Matt smiles back to the duel-haired senior officer.

“Ok...thank you Matt, I’ll be back sooner than you know it.” Shiro says, a small smile on his lips too.

Matt nods, turns to walk out of the pilot hanger. “I’ll give you guys a minute...and I’ll check if the coast is clear.” He gives Keith a look as he walks by him, the pilot can’t read it but he understands what he’s trying to convey.

_Say goodbye, we don’t know if we’ll see him again._

Then he’s gone, out of the room and the door hisses close.

“Come here Keith,” Shiro urges, Keith complies making his way over to stand next to the command chair.

Shiro pushed himself up, straightening his back. 

Keith can’t find any words to say anything to say something to the other. His throat is all clammed up and dry. He blames the lack of water they have to ration out.

Shiro’s hand is cold as he reaches over and squeezes his, “I’ll be back Keith, I promise. I won’t give up on you. Just a little bit longer and we’ll be done with this nightmare.”

Keith’s heart hammers in his chest, he wants to say something he needs to, he doesn’t know if what he’s saying is true. That this might be his final moment with Shiro and he doesn’t want it to be of silence.

Keith opens his mouth before it promptly shuts again. Nothing.

Shiro hums and tugs Keith down, His frame covering the rest of the room from view.

Both of Shiro’s hands cup Keith’s face and he rubs his thumbs across Keith cheeks taking in everything that he has to offer.

Shiro has to know too, that this might be the last time he might see Keith. Who knows how long until he’ll be able to hold him in his arms again. Keith can’t find any words to help in this situation so action is the only thing he can do.

He kisses Shiro, it’s frantic and needy. Teeth clashing and tongue taking in Shiro’s taste and he holds himself from breaking down. Shiro can’t see how much Keith wants to go with him. If he does that might spell Matt’s death and then Sam’s. They have to do what they need to survive, by himself it would be hard to take care of Samuel who’s injured, a broken leg. Keith has no medical background, while Matt does, but he doesn’t have the same skill and speed that Keith has in battle and how quickly he can gather supplies and be gone before an alien shows up. The two do them need each other in order to keep everyone alive.

Shiro responds with the same need, taking in Keith deeper and deeper where they both struggle to breath. Hands clutching the Garrison suit and Keith gripping his shoulders. Keith slides his tongue over Shiro’s lips and pulls away, taking in the heavy blush that dusts Shiro’s cheeks. He needs to go, the raven-haired pilot spending too much time there.

“I’ll be waiting.” He rips himself away and takes down to the exit of the ship where Matt is leaning against the side out of sight, but in enough view to keep his eyes on everything. Only once he hears the drumming of Keith’s feet along the cool base of the ship does he turn around and look at him.

Keith as much as he thinks that he might be as stoic and cold wears a lot of his emotions on his sleeve, quite literally. His body shows everything. Matt doesn’t say anything about what Keith might be feeling, but offer a small smile.

“Let’s get going.”

The two of them jump down from the ship walking around to the front to where Shiro can see them but the two of them can’t see him. Matt gives him a thumbs up, a sign.

The roar of the ships engine is loud. Definitely catching the attention of the aliens now. There’s no time to wait. The two of them take off in the direction they came. Barreling through the halls, before a growl catches their attention to their left. The purple fur too familiar. It’s purple ears flickering over to the two of them. The usual alien’s they’ve seen before.

They don’t wait. There’s a distinct sound as the ships engine takes off from the hanger it’s sound growing fainter and fainter as they move away and the ship leaves.

A single thought rings in his head. Shiro is gone. He’s safe. Keith and Matt manage to get him in that ship and away from here.

"Hell on Earth", Keith would have said but they're in space. They take a sharp turn, trying to get out of sight. He’s running out of breath, but he doesn’t stop. Quickly a few more steps and the two of them dash into a room, sealing the door behind them.

Thudding foot steps charge right past the door. A growl from the beast, and Keith thinks they’re safe as the sounds fade away further down the hall. Matt is leaning against the wall, arm prop up on a desk. He’s trying to catch his breath, hair sticking to his neck and forehead due to his sweat. Keith is sure he’s in a similar state, trying to catch gasps of air into his lungs.

“You were suppose to go with him Matt.” Finally finding his voice.

“And leave you here by yourself? Pass. You’d get yourself killed.”

* * *

 Keith hasn’t brought it up and Matt hasn’t mentioned it. There were things more important things to worry about. 

The room their were in had to be an old office of one of the commanders. There are books lined up along the wall, a terminal, an old photo of a man with his family and a name plate with the last name Anderson. 

Off the top of Keith’s head, there isn’t anyone he remembers with that last name. Previously memorizing the the list of people and their position here on the Mayfield. Now those things don’t matter.

Picking himself up from the ground he heads to the book shelf, picking up a random one to flip through it. Book on aerodynamics. Something that Keith’s familiar with.

Figures and diagrams explaining various things that the pilot knows without an actual name of what it is attached to it. The dull pain in his back throbs for a moment. A nasty bruise is definitely going to form there.

On their way here they were spotted, both of them caught in surprise as the creature threw Keith to the side. His back hitting the wall with a deafening snap. Leaving him dazed and feeling as if he just broke his spine, the dent a in the wall only helping to support how hard he was thrown.

Matt had called him, but as his lips moved to yell at Keith he struggled to keep the beast at bay. The large claws dragging along his cheek and smacking him to the side. The split moment giving Keith the chance he needed to dig his knife along his back. The alien roars in pain, freaking out before running off in the direction the came from.

Keith suggested to hide. Matt nodded, after a few more minutes they find the room they are hiding them. The doors lock still working, which was a big plus.

“Reading?” Matt breaks through his thoughts.

“Yeah aerodynamics…I miss flying.”

“I feel that.”

“I hope Shiro got to Earth safely.”

“I’m sure he did. He’ll do what he can to get back here as fast as he can.”

They both know. It’s months away. Unless they use the alien ship or have some genius reverse engineer the hyperspace tech, it will be at minimum four months until help is here. The back of Keith’s head he knows that they can possibly make it. But the devil on his shoulder whispers that he’s tired, that he should just give up. A crawling feeling itching along his back as he shivers.

“Huh, what’s this?” Matt is standing by his side now, looking at the book shelf.

He reaches and pulls more books off the shelf and onto the desk. Once he’s removed most of the shelf Keith notices what he’s talking about, it’s faint and covered by a thick layer of dust, but there’s a compartment.

“How do we open it?”

“Uh…I don’t know, “ Matt reaches over and pushes against the wall, which does the trick as it hisses open.

“Oh.”

Keith’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as he eyes what Matt finds. A pair of guns and clips of ammunition.

“I haven’t seen these in ages, aren’t they ban from being on the ship?” Keith asks, turning over to the other.

“Yeah, you know for obvious reason. People might get space crazy, too dangerous for anyone who might tip from being perfectly fine to not. Don’t know how they manage to sneak it on…” Gently Matt reaches forward and pulls one out of the padding. Testing the weight in his hand.

“We should take them, better us than anyone else finding it.” Matt levels Keith with a look before agreeing.

“True, you remember Garrison training right?” The other inquires.

Keith nods, briefly thinking about the class. A light, but mandatory course on assault weapons, and how to use them. “Safety clip and keep a count on your bullets.”

“To put it simply, yeah.”Keith nods and reaches over to pull the second one out. It’s lighter that he would have thought. It’s been a while that he had to hold one. He usually prefers to stick to his knives, but he won’t turn down something like this. He turns it in his hands. Thumbs running along the sides, he checks the safety is still in place and slips it in the back of his pants. His brown bomber jacket fluttering back and hiding the weapon. The both of them clipping the holsters with the ammunition.

The two of them accidentally stumbling into the Garrison storage room filled with clothes. The ship is huge and even being on it for almost a year, they hadn’t truly had time to explore, more worried about running. There was nothing more in the room then light and dark brown jackets with matching shirts. Dark jeans or jumpsuits. Limited choices, but hey beggars can’t be choosers. Keith decided with the leather bomber jacket, colors similar to the Garrison uniforms. Dark jeans which Keith missed and the same dark boots Keith has gotten used to.

Matt chosen the jumpsuit, which suited him, the front is left slightly unzipped showing the males undershirt which was a dark grey. Both of them sporting a duffle bag with water and food they find. Matt continues to eye the gun for a few seconds before he slips it into the from of the jump suit, tucking it into a pocket on the inside.

“We’ll only pull it when necessary we shouldn’t waste something like this.” Matt says. Keith nods, thinking back to the box of guns he has tucked away in his shed. He never found a reason to get rid of them, a reminder of his father that he refused to let go of.

“I hope we won’t have to use them.”

“Me neither-“ Keith starts, but the base shakes, a loud explosion echoing in the halls.

“Uh…what was that?” Matt’s holding onto the table, some of the books flying off the table as the tremblers continue for another minute or so. The metal creaking under pressure. Alarms are going off, the lights flash out in the hallway. The yellow and red shadows running over the bottom of the doorway.

“I don’t know and I don’t like it. We need to get back to your Dad,” Keith says after the ship stops moving.

“We’re pretty far from him, it will take us a while.” Matt says, eyeing the door then back to Keith’s face.

“We’ll do what we can, that sound can only mean one of two things. Help or our alien friends have finally had enough.” Keith sighs, taking in a deep breath. “Let’s get going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> asdfghjkl; 
> 
> I actually had this finished for a while I just didn't want to go through and edit,,,, tho there will probably be mistakes that I missed,,, but hey can't be perfect 
> 
> the third and final part will come soon, i'll start working on it as soon as I can but Uni is time consuming 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

**Author's Note:**

> This was partially inspired by an artwork on tumblr that I finally found by [hesioddreaming](http://hesioddreaming.tumblr.com/post/160192190234/what-was-that-i-dont-know-but-i-guess) I honestly couldn't think of a title, so I'm just sticking with the game inspiration. Comments are always great!


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